Tajani urges Poland to ensure safety of MEPs after far-right protest

Poland should “ensure the security” of its MEPs after far-right protesters staged a symbolic hanging of politicians, European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said Monday.

“I will write to PM Beata Szydło to ensure the security of elected Members of the European Parliament to express their opinions independently, without threat and oppose those who spread hatred by exhibiting outrageous pictures of hanged politicians,” Tajani said on Twitter.

Tajani’s tweet came after a group of a few dozen people in Katowice, Poland at the weekend hanged portraits of politicians who had supported a European Parliament resolution urging the Polish government to condemn a “xenophobic and fascist march” held during Poland’s Independence Day on November 11, Reuters reported. During the march, participants carried banners calling for “White Europe” and “Clean Blood.”

“One has to condemn what happened in Katowice,” Szydło said in response to Tajani’s tweet. However, Szydło added that if she received Tajani’s letter, she would ask him to “keep an eye on those MPs who insult and slander Poland in the European Parliament.”

Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party has been feuding with Brussels on a number of topics, including the country’s refusal to comply with an EU plan to resettle refugees as well as a controversial push to reform the judiciary.